


Waiting Game

by Miaou Jones (miaoujones)



Category: Free!
Genre: Alternate Universe, Gen, M/M, Swimming, Teen Crush
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-06-07
Updated: 2017-06-07
Packaged: 2018-11-10 00:41:18
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,032
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11116302
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/miaoujones/pseuds/Miaou%20Jones
Summary: More than anything, 16 year old Sousuke wants to make his coach proud.





	Waiting Game

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Jinbeizaki](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Jinbeizaki/gifts).



> Written for SASO 2017, Bonus Round 1.

As his hand touches and he surfaces, Sousuke doesn't look at the results board.

And then he does.

He looks down—not at anything, not at the water or himself, just down. Then he takes a breath, dunks under and braces his hands on the edge of the pool as he comes up, pulls himself out. He can't hold his head as high as he'd like but, as he walks over to his coach, at least he manages not to look down.

Until he gets to his coach.

"Sousuke," Coach Tachibana says.

"I know." Sousuke's last turn wasn't what it should have been and his strokes got thrown off, so he came to the wall on a half-stroke instead of gliding in with a full stroke on the one before it, and he touched with the flat of his palm instead of his fingertips. It was a bad enough turn that it cost him the heat. And it was a slow heat. Now, with two heats left, it's a waiting game to see if that turn lost him a shot at the Olympics team...

Coach says his name again, and Sousuke drags his gaze up. As expected, Coach's eyes are patient and kind. 

But Sousuke doesn't want his coach's eyes to be patient and kind. He wants them to be _thrilled_. He even... yeah, maybe he even wants them to be a little bright and damp. Because after missing out the way Coach did back in his own swimming days—an alternate on the Olympic team who swam at the Games just once, the backstroke leg in a qualifying heat of the 400 medley relay; who got his team to the finals, only to watch them finish fourth, out of the medals, with a backstroke leg that was slower than his in the qualifier; after he had to stand there poolside and watch an opening leg that cost Japan a medal Coach Tachibana probably could have won for them—

Sousuke has watched the video of that relay many times. He'd seen it even before he walked into Iwatobi Swim Club that first time, five years ago; that video is _why_ he'd walked in, hoping to meet Matsuoka Rin, three time individual medalist in the butterfly and Sousuke's swim hero. 

Matsuoka Rin didn't teach at the club, it turned out, even though he was one of the owners. Instead, Sousuke had met one of the other owners, Tachibana Makoto. He'd gone home after that meeting and watched the video of the relay yet again, and seen a figure he'd never noticed in the background, looking on—

"Sousuke," Coach Tachibana says now, his voice as calm and patient as ever, even though he's repeating himself for the third time, even though Sousuke may have just blown the Olympic Trials. "You should have congratulated Oshiro. He was in the lane right next to you."

Of course; this is Coach Tachibana, after all. Sousuke looks around and sees the winner of the heat, all smiles, on the other side of the pool. With a nod to his coach, Sousuke heads over to offer belated congratulations. He rolls his shoulder a couple of times as he walks; it feels fine, fully healed, in no way to blame for today's results.

Oshiro's back is to him when Sousuke gets there, but he doesn't appear to be talking with his coach. "Excuse me." When Oshiro turns to him, Sousuke offers a quick bow of his head. "Good race."

"You too," Oshiro says, even though Sousuke's wasn't and they both know it.

Sousuke walks back just before the group for the next heat comes out; he finds Coach Tachibana and sits next to him as the swimmers take their places on the starting blocks. There's no one in particular to watch in this heat, and when the times flash up on the results board, Sousuke feels his next breath come easier.

There's one swimmer to watch in the final heat. One swimmer Sousuke and everyone else will be watching. Sure enough, Hisakawa powers through with an impressive time. Impressive enough to get the crowd, including Sousuke, including his coach beside him, on their feet. Hisakawa's time is more than impressive: it's a Trials record.

Sousuke turns to Coach Tachibana and sees him still looking at the results board, his expression blank in a way that it shouldn't be; Coach is always thrilled by good swimming. Sousuke looks at the board again—and sees the second place time. More than a second and a half slower than Hisakawa's finish. Two one-thousandths of a second faster than Sousuke's.

For a moment, something less than a second and maybe closer to two one-thousandths of one, Sousuke doesn't breathe.

When he starts again, it comes out ragged. Ragged and wet. He turns when Coach says his name this time but doesn't look up. He can't look at Coach Tachibana's face, at his eyes, patient and calm and quietly proud of Sousuke for having done his best. Sousuke wants those eyes to be excited. He wants Coach Tachibana to be excited that he's going back to the Olympics; he wants Coach to be overwhelmed that Sousuke is taking him there...

"Sousuke," Coach says, and then his arms are around Sousuke, and Sousuke is burying his face against that broad shoulder. He feels Coach's hand cupping the back of his head, letting him stay like this a moment longer. "Four years from now; it'll be your time four years from now."

Sousuke nods against Coach's shoulder. He's only sixteen now; twenty isn't too old for the Olympics. And when he's twenty—when he's twenty, no longer a teenager, an adult—when he's twenty, he'll be able to confess to Coach Tachibana. And maybe Coach Tachibana will accept his confession, and tell Sousuke to call him "Makoto"...

For now, Sousuke pulls himself together; straightens up and looks Coach Tachibana in the eyes and nods when Coach Tachibana says, "All right." He looks into those eyes that are telling him it will be all right, and even if Sousuke can't smile right now in this moment, he believes those eyes. He believes the smile that believes in him.


End file.
